Athens

Athens is not just the city that Onassis Stegi lives and grows in. Athens is our city and we confront it as it is; a living space full of interesting encounters, of personalities that make a difference through their work –an area that keeps growing, reinvents itself and seeks answers to some of the most diachronic questions. This is why we explore the city day after day.

Onassis Stegi gets out and travels through the city of Athens, goes down to the center of the city and advocates for it as a diachronic, but also living place, a space for the fermentation, collision, and exchange of ideas.

Onassis Stegi engages with Athens in numerous and varied ways, without idealizing the city unnecessarily and without any nostalgia, but always with a respect for its past. Onassis AiR, a year-long program situated in the center of Athens, in which all participating residents can interact as equals, without the pressure of time, work, and deadlines, represents the epitome of the Foundation’s philosophy: that the conditions for creation must be ensured. Time for ripening allows talent to break free and develop.

Athens is explored by Onassis Fellows; people who enter into the Onassis Cosmos. Alice Potts, a post graduate of the Fashion and Innovation department of the Royal College of Arts in London, will be living in Athens for a whole year, as an Onassis Fellow. As a bio - tech designer, Alice will work on the nature and the technology of the Athenian sweat. Potts presented her work to the public during the 2018 Athens Biennale (AB6).

Each year – through a series of commissions, co-productions and site-specific installations at public organizations and in private and open spaces across the city center – the Onassis Fast Forward Festival explores the city’s limits, seeks out places where art intertwines with daily life, and offers answers to deep-seated questions.

Throughout the year, Onassis Educational Programs step out of the Onassis Library building and connect the past with the present, speaking of Athens of ancient Agora and the coexistence of different ethnic communities, searching for the long lost river Ilissos and creating a 3D city map.

Onassis Foundation sees Athens as a dynamic place for coexistence. Taking the city center as its first point of reference, it sends out this message: local becomes international. The local international.